While small children needn’t be kept away from electronic devices completely, their screen time with a smartphone, tablet computer or television set should be limited to half-hour periods if they’re under age 5, according to a new German initiative that advises parents and teachers on children’s use of electronic media.
But how can parents pry a mesmerised child away from an electronic device? Kerstin Langer, a media educator with the initiative, recommends doing something entertaining immediately after the child’s screen time.
“Small children aren’t good at abstract thinking,” Langer notes. So instead of talking about a story the child has just seen in a short video, for example, she says it would be more fun to re-enact parts of it.
Or if, say, a frog is a character in the story, you could go outside together to see whether any frogs live around the lake nearby. Did children in the video drink cocoa? Make cups of cocoa yourself. Does the protagonist of the children’s series flout household rules by eating biscuits in bed? You and your child can try it yourselves and find out how it feels.
In Langer’s view, it’s hardly productive to simply wrest an electronic device away from children. “It can be terribly difficult for them to disengage from media worlds,” she points out, adding they’re still too young to understand that they can re-engage with them soon.
So it’s best to make it clear in advance how much screen time is allowed, or how many episodes of a show the child is permitted to watch.
“Amicably announce when the time is up, and let the child switch off the device,” Langer advises. The child thereby learns at an early age to take a bit of responsibility for his or her media consumption. – dpa
